2025-10-13: Not Just A Number
- Log: 2025-10-13 Not Just A Number
- Cast: Yanagi Nagisa, Yua Ooshiro
- Where: Outside the Cardboard Dragon, Hirasaka Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: October 13, 2025
- IC Date: July 25, 2012
- Summary: While each of them approach the Cardboard Dragon, Yua and Yanagi cross paths--a shocking encounter for both of them, since Yua is part of the NWO that Yanagi escaped from, and Yanagi was presumed dead as a result. Once they both calm down, they have a nice drive and a nice talk and come to a nice understanding--no, really.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua has been taking it relatively easy, these past few days, per her doctor's orders; she's taken leave for the week, given how exams are running anyway, and she'd rather avoid being caught out with a lack of knowledge on how to administer them. But given Miho's tireless work, she has time enough to herself during the day; today, her black Mercer-Benz pulls up in a neighbourhood far too shabby for such a nice car, and her driver lets her out onto the street as a rolled-up piece of newspaper rolls by. It's a lovely summer day, just a little unseasonably chilly -- mostly because it's also a touch too windy.
She isn't wearing pointe shoes, today, but sturdy shoes with plenty of ankle support alongside compression socks; her black leotard is as striking as ever, though, with its skirt fanning down to her knees and her hair all up in a neat bun, eyepatch slung over her left eye and a fabric decoration stretched across her right hand like half a glove. She has a lovely little black handbag, slung over one shoulder, as she steps towards the alleyway where the Cardboard Dragon is nestled.
She doesn't expect to see many people visiting, at this time of day...
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
There's summer vacation coming up too! Granted, teachers probably have things they have to do during the summer, but Yua isn't a true teacher, so it's probably fine--right?
For her part, Yanagi hasn't had to worry about exams or anything like that in about three years, and she's pretty content remaining like that. She enjoys the summer warmth--though she's less fond of the chill the windiness brings. As thin as she is, she gets cold easily...
That doesn't stop her from strolling towards Cardboard Dragon for a visit. She had a session with Dr. Tomi recently, so it's for nothing more or less than because she wants to. Her long, wavy, ash white hair flows mostly freely save for a pair of hair pins at her temples, shaped like long swan feathers inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Her blouse and skirt are both ruffled in white and accented in black and gold, matching those hair pins. A ribbon sash ties around her waist, and her shoes are soft with thick soles. Links of charms decorate her left wrist and right ankle.
She pays no mind to the black Merzer-Benz as it pulls up just as she's approaching the alleyway towards Cardboard Dragon. No, she only stops and stares when a familiar face emerges, dressed in a leotard and compression socks, an eyepatch over one eye.
It is, initially, a freeze reaction. Then, when the situation sinks in, Yanagi simply stands there with her polished walking cane and waits, thin shoulders squared. There aren't any spots for her to hide around here that Yua won't immediately pass by, and anyway, she's just not that fast to move in time to avoid detection.
She does, however, reach into her pocket for her phone and discreetly send a text to the others of Cardboard Dragon to let them know where she is and what's going on.
"...."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua has plenty of things to do during the summer! Like go to the Olympics. That's... like something related to teaching, right? Physical education?
She has literal blind spots as well as educational ones, though; as it happens, Yanagi was approaching on Yua's left side, and it leaves her unaware of her for long moments which Yanagi can use to brace herself.
No, it's only when she turns her head --
And at first she looks right over Yanagi, for she doesn't wish to stare at someone using a walking stick and make them uncomfortable, but something chimes recognition in the back of her mind. Pale hair, slight and small...
"oh," Yua gasps, a hand to her chest, and she does not have those long painted nails stuck on her short, unvarnished ones today. (She's nervous about the chemicals.)
"You --"
Her voice tightens, and she does not think to send for help, as her hands clasp at her chest. Rather, she demands, with a voice keening high with confusion and a recognition which hardly suits the words:
"Who are you?!"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
It is fortunate for Yanagi, yes. It's also unfortunate. By the time she clocks that she came in on Yua's blind spot and so maybe could have hidden herself before getting noticed, Yua's gaze is already passing over her. She can only stay where she is, a ghost watching the living go about their day.
And naturally, Yua reacts to her as if she is a ghost. It's quite natural. Yanagi doesn't know what Blacksite Revelation told the others after she was disposed of, but considering she never heard anything from anyone, she has to assume they all thought she was dead--eaten by demons, perhaps, or else succumbed to her own lifelong condition.
Yanagi smiles at Yua's shocked little 'oh.' She watches her clutch at her chest, listens to her demand to know who she is despite the recognition in her single eye.
"My name is Yanagi Nagisa. You would know me as Number 99, I think," she replies with a grace and aplomb that comes largely from having gotten to get over her alarm first. In her chest, her heart beats like a hummingbird's.
And, because neither of them ever got to learn the other's real name during that time:
"Who are you, Number 22?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Number --
Number 99 --
and she is --
"... those numbers... those Numbers...!" Yua shrieks, clasping at the sides of her head. "Reducing hearts to but Numbers...!"
But what can she do? They had no name but a Number; but another soul for the sacrificial block. "I -- I am not -- no longer would men dare speak of me that way! I've a name, Mimi, tell them!" That name she kept; the mysterious Mimi, who 22 insisted was coming for her, who wouldn't let her rot. "I -- I am -- oh," she takes a gasping breath, as if to fill her lungs with all this open air.
"Yua," she says, at length, as her voice trembles. "Yua Ooshiro... at this time, now, that is my name."
She reaches towards Yanagi, though she can't bring herself to step forward.
"They said you died," she says, voice hush. "I thought -- surely I had harried you to your grave. Oh," she says, again, brow knit as her heart breaks, "it isn't safe, they think you dead --"
Umie Akabane has arrived from The Cardboard Dragon.
Umie Akabane has left for Rengedai - Main.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi watches with an uncharacteristic expressionlessness as Yua shrieks, as she grips her head, as she speaks of the Mimi who was supposed to come save her. Back in Blacksite Revelation, she would sometimes freeze up, lock down, but there was always a deer-in-headlights quality to it back then. Now...
Now, there is a self-possession to that iciness. Like, she's there because she stepped into it herself, not because she was shoved in with the door locked behind her.
Because of that, she waits patiently. They are unpleasant memories; she knows that well. Yua deserves some time to regain herself. Eventually, she does.
She nods once. "Yua Ooshiro," she repeats, as if to overwrite the Number 22 she used but a moment ago. She smiles, but there is no warmth to it. However, something in her dark eyes softens when Yua frets about how they thought her dead, how it isn't safe.
"Yes. They thought I was dead. That's how I escaped," she replies gently. "What about you, Yua? Have you escaped? Or has your cage merely grown larger?" She looks up at the second-floor windows. Another of their Number is here, too. Yanagi has not asked Myunghon about it, but...
"...Is Cardboard Dragon a branch of theirs after all?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Yanagi Nagisa," Yua repeats, in turn. "Yanagi Nagisa... Yanagi Nagisa... Nagi, Nagi..."
She at least seems a little more calmed, finding the pattern, there. Still, she doesn't smile -- and when Yanagi asks after her escape, Yua looks down, a shadow crossing over her lovely face.
"..."
It is as good an answer as anyone could give.
She looks to her, though, and shakes her head. "No," she says, and there is an honesty to her answer which she would need to be quite practiced to feign -- though that's hardly impossible. "Myucchi was once slain by those hands, too. They stand in tension, left to live. But --"
Yua looks back and forth, along the street. "We mustn't speak here," she insists, still wound tense. "Each window an eye, each breeze blowing to an ear. Will you drive with me? My driver is our man, not theirs. And -- I've no demand pressed to me to harm you," for indeed she cannot say she wouldn't harm her, though the assurance she can offer feels too thin and fragile. "How could I? You are dead and gone."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
There is a certain rhythm to how Yua repeats her name. Yanagi hums along with it for a moment. Then she asks her question, and Yua says nothing in response.
...It is an eloquent answer indeed.
She tilts her head when Yua at least confirms that the Cardboard Dragon is not theirs. Slain... hmm... But then Yua asks she get in her car so they can talk privately. Promises that the driver is hers, not theirs. Yanagi looks her dead in the eye; looks back up at the storefront; looks over at the black car; considers the weight of the phone in her pocket.
"...All right."
At the least, it's true they shouldn't talk here. Yanagi has concerns about Yua coming here if she believes she's still being watched, and if she intends to spirit her away somewhere... she's not the powerless little girl she used to be.
Though Yanagi honestly doesn't know how her Navigator abilities would stack up to Yua's, all considered, she too wants answers. The two of them were dear friends once. She'd like to know what's changed since she "died."
Yanagi thus gets inside the car, aided by her walking cane...
"So they're letting you use your own name now?" she remarks once they're buckled up and in motion. "What changed?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Seiji-san?" Yua calls, as they turn right back to the car; he gets out, and nods to them, smiling to her. "Ooshiro-san."
"This is my driver, Seiji Sahashi," she introduces him to Yanagi -- and he'll help her get seated, if she needs it. It's nice and roomy in the back of a Mercer-Benz, so she at least doesn't need to worry about her legs getting cramped.
"We just need to talk," Yua informs him, and so, tinted windows all firmly shut, he starts off --
-- and Yua, sitting beside her, pulls out her purse from her handbag. (Confusingly, that can also be called a 'purse'. Shall we, then, call her purse her purse purse?) "Mimi found me," she says, as she flips it open to show her the photo of the Olympian titan inside -- the same woman shown in that card which was Yua's most precious possession, back then. "Miho Ijuuin... she had to infiltrate them to find me, was tangled in their nets for my sake, but she found me. And since she found me from the inside, they released me to her... for I was quite useless for their purposes by then."
She looks away, and perhaps Yanagi can imagine.
"She managed to save Recchi the same way... claiming her as strength to use on the outside. We don't wish to mind them," she insists, as she puts her purse away, only to reach up with her fingers to brush at the choker at her neck. "But they are -- very persuasive -- and the drugs, Nagi-Nagi, we'll die less the drugs. Thank goodness they never cared to force the issue with you..."
Yua blinks, a touch rapidly, before she shakes her head and looks back to Yanagi. "They think me a jewel in their crown," she explains, "for I became quite strong, I suppose... though I doubt they'd be so considerate without Mimi's insistence. And -- and it isn't so bad, out here -- I suffer to step from the line, but they've not yet found a way to place me at fault for executing the mere letter of their laws. Many days, they leave me to my tasks... they let me teach, so I instruct the youth in dancing, now. Of course, I'm not really..." Yua shakes her head, downcast, and in her honesty she hands Yanagi a smoking gun. "... please, don't tell them I'm a fraud. I know the childrens' trust is ill-placed, but... I did truly wish to see them flourish."
Tsubasa Seki has arrived from The Rooster Inn.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi bows her head to Seiji, unsmiling. She doesn't accept his help in getting seated, though she'll accept him opening and shutting the door for her if he or Yua insist. Otherwise, she simply takes her time.
Soon enough, the car is in motion; the tinted windows are up. Yanagi scoots herself around so she better faces Yua, her cane still in hand--the loop keeps it hanging from her left wrist so it's never far even if she drops it.
Yua offers a picture. Yanagi leans forward to inspect it, and does inspect that woman Yua had pointed out on TV so long ago. Miho Ijuuin... She nods and looks back at Yua in time for Yua to look away. Yes... Yanagi can quite imagine. It wasn't that long ago that she was declared 'dead,' after all.
"Recchi?" she echoes--she's seen Remi in battle, once, but never properly introduced herself, so she doesn't know her name. She can guess that's who Yua means, but just in case... She nods once at the mention of the drugs, her dark eyes flicking downwards. Thank goodness they never cared to force the issue with you, she says, and Yanagi can't say anything back.
But now, with 'Mimi,' Yua is apparently a crown jewel. "Oh? What a difference having someone by your side makes," Yanagi murmurs, tone droll. It isn't so bad, Yua adds, and Yanagi thinks that's probably so, considering she has a fancy car and a chauffeur now. But it's a chauffeur to take her to a bigger cage, and it's plain that her suffering continues, just in a different way.
Still, while Yua may hand Yanagi a smoking gun, she simply nods. "Better you than some of the others they could've chosen for the task, and you are a very good dancer. Why a teacher, though?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Ah... Remi," Yua uses her proper name, "Remi Ryuuja. She... she was also... but I don't wish to speak that address," Yua says, a touch haplessly. "I feel quite mad when I do, and I must avoid too much stress, I mustn't take the drugs for a little while longer..."
She pauses, delicately, and plunges forward to explain: "If all's gone well, I carry Mimi's child, now. Though we rather had to skulk about to achieve the surrogacy... but soon my name shall be Ijuuin." And Yua does smile, there, if briefly. "They told me to avoid 'endocrine disruptors' until we're sure it's taken... so I need to bear it... just for a little while."
(A fortnight isn't an unthinkable amount of time to go between doses -- but of course the quality of that time matters, too.)
"Mimi shields me from all that she can," Yua insists, and perhaps she feels she must, under that droll tone. "It's just -- she is too strong for them to bow -- and with what they did to Recchi, too... I suppose they find it most effective to punish me, to send their messages."
A golden cage is still a cage.
She tries to smile, again, when she addresses teaching. "I wished to do something good," she says, though of course a wish like that must have a dozen caveats from where she's standing. "And even with their practice, I've passed the time I could truly join the stage professionally... so I wished to pass my passion on to the young, to foster their own love for movement, to -- to share all that I love, you know?"
She pauses, biting at her lip. "Though... they invented some program for me to run across the campuses of greater Tokyo... so that I could monitor them for the Powers that Be. Since there are a great many children with gifts like mine... and some of them can be described as problematic."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Remi Ryuuja... I see." Yanagi's about to confirm her number, but Yua makes it clear that her abhorrence for Numbers isn't limited to her own. She nods instead. She knows enough to connect the dots. She'll even be correct.
But then Yua explains something new, and Yanagi gapes in surprise. "Her child? But isn't she...?" Yanagi doesn't know about surrogacy, so even the mention of that doesn't clear up her confusion; ultimately, it's the fact that they're both in the NWO that keeps her from asking more questions. She simply assumes it's more mad science. If the two of them get to have a child with each other, though, so much the better for them!
So when the surprise passes, she smiles, this time with genuine warmth. "That's wonderful! I'll be rooting for you, Yua! Oh--that means I must be careful too then, yes?" So as not to upset Yua and risk her pregnancy by forcing her to take drugs. She nods firmly. "I'll do my best to be discreet."
So when Yua goes on about how she apparently takes punishments in Miho and Remi's steads, Yanagi frowns a little, but says nothing. That sounds like them, she instead thinks, and worries if the future child in Yua's belly will be allowed to reach its future.
Oh well. It's not Yanagi's business. She certainly doesn't want to get drawn in to anything NWO-related, and Yua knows her own circumstances best.
Instead, she lets the topic move on to Yua's role as a teacher and why she was allowed to do that. As far as her own personal reasons are concerned, she gets an effusive, "That's wonderful! I'm sure you really are a splendid dance teacher."
But as far as the NWO's motives go, well... "I see. That makes sense," she says, more neutral this time. There are a large number of teenaged Persona-Users around. A teacher across several schools in the greater Tokyo area would be a good way of keeping an eye out for and on them.
It's out of concern for Yua's tentative pregnancy that Yanagi refrains from asking what becomes of those teenagers who, after much monitoring, are positively identified as having a Persona.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua hates the way they were called that, back then. They might matter just as little now, but at least she doesn't need to feel confused about who's even suffering.
"I-I know," Yua stammers, her face a touch flush, "but I love her, I always have! We're serious about that!" She of course assumes that Yanagi would protest over Miho's gender for another reason entirely, ships passing in the gay, gay night.
Luckily, Yanagi declares she's rooting for her, and relief floods Yua's face. "Thank you," she smiles, and actually smiles, this time; which must mean of course she is capable of smiling, despite all that's passed. "I'll be counting on you, too, Nagi-Nagi."
(She's decided she likes the sound of Nagi-Nagi. It's nice and balanced in its repetition. It's a good nickname.)
But, her circumstances...
Well, Yua seems determined not to lose hope, despite the hopelessness of her position.
Since she's counting on her, though, she's able to focus on the kinder side of her presentation. (Though, could her heart survive her students disappearing, after one of those tense conversations with wretched men...? ... she did, certainly, have to hand Ichika to those officers, not long ago, though she wasn't even any Persona-User Yua's ever identified.)
"I am fortunate that they do not ask too often," she says, "and they leave me to my work." Whether they're just doing something like that to lure her into a false sense of security with regards to her students' senses of trust is, of course, another matter entirely. "And the children are lovely, really -- most of my students are highschoolers, so they've a more casual than professional interest, but the way they light up when they realise they can learn routines based on their favourite songs is always wonderful! Though, it is a little nervewracking when the other teachers notice I've filed paperwork wrong..."
She shakes her head, and smiles, to Yanagi. "I wish I could ask you what you've grasped, since your death," she says, and her heart will shatter on her expression. "But it's far too dangerous, isn't it? If they ever thought to ask... it would be difficult for me not to answer. Still... I am so glad to see you well," she insists, reaching over, a touch tentatively, to clasp her hand. "And I dearly hope you've someone by your side... if you've not, you could do far worse than Myucchi, you know?" A light pause, "Myunghon Yeo," as Yua remembers to explain their nickname, too. "They joined Mimi in saving me, you know... though it was very dangerous for them. And as Recchi and I recovered, too... Myucchi was always there. As they are now, they've never failed us." 'As they are now'...?
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Yes, I remember. You were adamant that she was going to come to save you," Yanagi says with a fond smile, not realizing that Yua thinks her problem is with the gay. "I'm glad you two could be reunited. She must be very serious if she went as far as joining the New World Order to find you, and good for you that she is. Your faith was rewarded."
Nagi-Nagi is a cute nickname! Yanagi doesn't mind it at all, and even giggles when Yua calls her that. "You're welcome," she replies, but does not confirm if Yua can count on her or not. To a certain extent, certainly--she was a dear friend, and what they did to both of them was reprehensible, and Yanagi feels bad that she's still in a cage--but Yanagi isn't going to go back to captivity for her either.
"I see. That is... fortunate," Yanagi replies, though she notes that Yua says too often, indicating that they have asked. She can at least smile as Yua enthuses about the good parts of her cover job. It really is a golden cage she's in now, isn't it? Freedom would be superior to it all, but Yanagi's glad she gets to be comfortable now, at least.
Yua reaches for her hand; Yanagi reaches back. "Yes, it's better you don't know. Suffice to say, they left me to be eaten by demons or succumb to my condition, but I did neither," Yanagi replies. Similarly, she doesn't respond on if she has anyone at her side--but when she talks about Myunghon, she listens with interest. There is something there in how Yua says 'as they are now,' but Yanagi knows enough about them to wager some guesses on what Yua means.
"Myunghon is a good friend of mine. We met last month," she says. "I didn't realize they were already so deeply connected to you, but it makes sense; I know they're associated with Remi, so it only makes sense that they have a connection to you and Miho also. I'm glad that they've been such a big help to you." 'It was very dangerous for them,' though... Is that why their eye and their hands are...?
...On another note, did Yanagi always call people by their first names without suffixes? She definitely didn't used to do that... It's hard to tell, though, considering the only people she used to have to talk to were the doctors and the Numbers.
"Do they know that you all are with the NWO, still?" Yanagi wonders. "If they aren't with them too, then..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"We wish to marry," Yua smiles, which of course explains why she's going to be an Ijuuin. (Though, aren't there laws against that?) "To spend our lives with each other."
... she doesn't share how she plans on getting away with that under the eyes of the Powers that Be, either, but surely she has a plan. Right? She has a plan, right?!
It's okay, though. Yua wouldn't wish for her to return to that cage, even gilded as hers is. And so she takes Yanagi's hand, and nods as she boils down her survival, and asks no questions of it at all.
"And I am relieved you've such a friend," she says, instead, and quite honestly. She doesn't mind Yanagi's yobisute address; after all they've been through, it's entirely suitable. It's a little stranger to hear her refer even to Miho yobisute, when she's never met her, but --
Well, Yua has her own idiosynchronistic way of speaking, and only part of that has always been that way. There are worse things she could do than forgo the use of honourifics.
"They know some things," Yua sighs. "That the facility was a powerful thing, that the authorities are no aid to us... perhaps they suspect I've a Persona, but I disguise myself, when I fight. ... I don't wish my students to see me." She shakes her head, hand pulling back to press at her handbag -- at the weight hidden in a compartment at the bottom, there. "You'll know at once, so I'll tell you plainly... when I leave at 'that hour', I wear bridal veils and the name Yumi. Gretchen protects me, then... I've fought Myucchi through those veils, here and there. Well, there's been times I haven't been able to ask her aid, either... when I didn't have my disguise at hand, and couldn't risk being exposed." Yua frowns, thinking of Ayame's husband. "'They' would surely be upset, if I scuppered my cover story so easily... so I don't always have the range of movement I'd like."
That's the thing about cages; it's difficult to fly in them.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
There are laws against kidnapping, human trafficking, and murder, and yet... Suffice to say that Yanagi takes this explanation at face value. "Oh my...! I'd say I hope I'm invited to the wedding, but it's probably best if I'm not," Yanagi says, genuinely apologetic. "But please do show me the photographs afterwards if it wouldn't compromise either of us!"
It's that last part that's going to be difficult for both of them...
But the main topic of Myunghon, at the moment. Yanagi nods when Yua explains that they know some but not all things--including some things Yua tells her straight-up. "Hmm... 'Yumi,' is it..." She certainly remembers Gretchen, so it's not hard to imagine... It makes sense that she doesn't want to be recognized by her students, either. "I see, so you've fought Myunghon too..." She cups a hand on her cheek. "As a code name, 'Yumi' isn't very different from 'Yua,' but if you haven't been recognized yet, I suppose that's what's important..."
She rests a hand on her chin in thought. "So, Myunghon doesn't know for certain that you have a Persona... or that you're still tied to the Order. Does that mean they don't know about Remi, or are her circumstances different from your own?"
Surely they can't be that different, though... But maybe they can, if Yua thought she could get away with not reporting her... After all-- "You don't intend on reporting me, do you? To... whomever you answer to in the Order, now."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Of course I will," Yua smiles, soothing her apologies with a warm reception. "It's all right. If one day I'm freed... we'll have another party, all right?"
Yanagi points out the obvious flaw in Yua's disguise, and she laughs, hand to her chest. "I -- I suppose so, isn't it...? But I wished for Mimi and I to be honest out there, even though we've had to hide ourselves thus far... so we're Yumi and Miyu, you see? And with Gretchen's help, we've stayed hidden so far..."
When Yanagi asks about Remi, of course Yua's aware that she's simply feeding oodles of sensitive information back to what is by all accounts an enemy agent, even if she never did awaken to a Persona of her own, but Yua brushes that thought off easily. These are all things Yanagi knows -- or could intuit easily; it's not like she's telling her about people she doesn't know. And so: "Recchi stands beside us... though I don't know how much Myucchi's divined about her stance at night, either."
Yua shakes her head, then. "I don't like to volunteer more information than I'm asked," she says, "for they can force me to dance, but they must first request the performance. I've no love spare for the Powers that Be, I... simply cannot resist them so easily. Once I did little more than speak out of turn, in their seat of power... and they sent a shinobi to choke me half to death." Her gaze drops; she is ashamed at her own powerlessness. "You understand... particularly now, when I wish for a child... the only resistance which avails me is omission."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Yes! I would love that," Yanagi enthuses, pink rising in her pale cheeks as she smiles brilliantly at the prospect of a party. There is a pretty big 'if' attached to it--if Yua is freed, and an unspoken extra if, i.e. if Yanagi is alive to see that day--but sometimes it's nice to let oneself hope... no matter how unlikely that hope is to come to fruition.
"Yumi and Miyu..." Yes, it's definitely very obvious. Still, Yanagi respects that Yua wants to be honest. Maybe, deep down, she wants to be recognized, too. Yanagi considers this thoughtfully, then nods once. "Well, if any of your students realize the truth, it won't be because I told them," she says decisively. "If they want to know, they'll need to earn it." The hell that she and Yua experienced together--that's more than payment enough.
So hopefully that's similar reassurance about all the sensitive information that Yua is casually sharing with Yanagi. Who would she tell, if not those children? (...Who indeed?) And in this case, it's relevant to Yanagi--even if Yua might not sell Yanagi out, Remi might. Her eyes narrow when Yua speaks of how she was nearly kiled for merely speaking out of turn, but she nods once. "I understand. I'll tell you as little as I can, and I'll try not to ask much more of you, either."
How much should she mention to Myunghon...? Maybe it would be best to leave that one alone. As long as it's unclear how much they know, then there's plausible deniability for Yua and Remi both. Of course, the ones for whom that matters are their handlers... She'll think on that. She only agreed to not tell Yua's students. Anyone else is fair game, in Yanagi's mind, but for now, she'll hold her tongue.
"...on which note, where are we going to?" she asks, because that's sort of important.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"So would I," Yua smiles, though of course both of them would need to live to see the day.
Even if it can't happen, it's still nice to think about.
"Earn it? Haha..." Yua laughs, laying a hand to her cheek. "You make it sound like I'm just being a harsh teacher... that would be much better, wouldn't it? But you're right... if they work that hard, they'll at least learn a little more about the dangers. I'd be a little sad, but I'd be proud of them, too..."
... even if she's too scared to scupper the Powers that Be herself, that doesn't mean she's hoping the people who fight them will lose.
"That's safest," Yua nods, seeing the calculations in Yanagi's eyes. "But, oh... I am glad you are well. And... oh!"
Yua leans forward, sliding the screen to the front open again. "Seiji-san, can you stop by the closest station, now...?"
She sits back, smiling to Yanagi, as she reaches over to clasp her hand again -- this time, in a gesture of farewell. "... the train station is all right, isn't it? I'm afraid it would look suspicious if we went right back to the Cardboard Dragon... and I wouldn't wish to ask you where you'd like to go."
Seiji will open the door for her when they get there, though. Even if she doesn't need help getting out!
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"It's not as though you can just tell them. Helping them figure it out on their own is what a good teacher should do, right?" Yanagi supposes. She's never had a teacher who quite knew what to do with her... But it sounds like that's what would be best in Yua's case--for her and for her students.
For now, she takes Yua's hand and squeezes back. "Yes, the train station is fine," she replies. She can take a day trip around Sumaru before heading back to Tokyo; it's not often that she sees the other wards, and this is as good an opportunity as any.
"I'm glad we were able to meet again," she says before she leaves. "Please, take care of yourself, Yua."
She'll let Seiji open the door without comment. It's part of his job as a chauffeur, so it's fine. She'll make her way to the train station on her own, though.